President Trump Honors Miracle On Ice Legends With Congressional Gold Medals, Throws On A Cowboy Hat
It's a fitting honor for some of the greatest athletes in US history
If I had to name the greatest single team in sports history, I'd tell you the 1980 Olympic hockey team instantly.
Its win over the seemingly unstoppable Soviets was one of the greatest upsets in sports history, and that win led to a gold medal win over Finland that remains the US's most recent men's hockey gold.
No team brought the nation together and made as much of an impact as the Miracle on Ice team, and on Friday, the members headed to Washington, DC, to watch as President Donald Trump signed the Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act into law.
Members of the team were on hand along with family members representing those, including head coach Herb Brooks, who are sadly no longer with us.
They were joined by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY, and specifically the district that contains Lake Placid), and FBI Director and certified hockey guy Kash Patel.
Gotta love the autopen joke.
The players and family members — including NHL great Ryan Suter, who was there on behalf of his late father, Bob Suter — wore cowboy hats for the event, and it took me a second to realize why.
They were the same hats that they wore for the opening ceremony of the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, and they brought along an extra for the president, who cracked a very funny joke about Michael Dukakis wearing a helmet.
Another topic that came up several times had to do with Minnesota. Of course, Rep. Emmer is from there, but so are most of the players from the Miracle on Ice team.
Of course, with so many issues happening in that state, there were some jokes.
What a moment this was. It was kind of crazy as the players and their families introduced themselves; it was just legend after legend.
Names like Craig, Eruzione, Brooks, Schneider, O'Callahan, Pavelich, Christian, and more.
Just an iconic group of American heroes that will make you want to start chanting, "USA!" something as blueliner Ken Morrow noted, started with the Miracle on Ice, and not as the President joked he likes to think, with the 2016 Election.
Oh, what the hell, let's do it: USA! USA! USA!